Passenger's Tale Of Terror: Sky Pirates Show No Mercy

June 16, 1985|By Chicago Tribune

LARNACA, CYPRUS — ''One of the terrorists stood at the front of the plane holding a grenade over his head, shouting, 'Head down! Don't talk! Do what we say or we kill you!' '' Dorothy Sullivan recounted.

The retired schoolteacher from Aurora, Ill., acted as spokesman for 19 Chicago area women and children freed from the hijacked TWA jetliner in Beirut.

She told of beatings and threats in the first hours after the plane was seized when it left Athens, Greece, Friday morning. Just before she was freed, she said, she saw two young men obviously injured and lying on the floor of the Boeing 727.

For security reasons, a U.S. Embassy official would not let her describe the terrorists or the weapons they used. Even without these details, she told a chilling story.

''The seat belt light had just gone on after our takeoff from Athens,'' said Sullivan, 60. ''I was reading a newspaper when the person next to me said, 'Did you see those two men with guns and hand grenades running forward? I think we are being hijacked.'

''I couldn't believe it but then the stewardess said over the loudspeaker that it was true, that we were being hijacked. She told us to put our hands over our heads and to cooperate with everything the terrorists said.''

Sullivan said one of the terrorists was ''extremely nervous and harsh,'' beating elderly passengers with his fists and screaming orders constantly.

''As he walked down the aisle, he ordered us to hold our hands high above our heads then to bend forward at the waist with our hands on our heads.

''All the time, he was hitting people with his fists. No one screamed when they were hit. They just grunted and took it. I lifted my head for a moment and saw him kick a woman in the head. She was about 55. If he saw you with your head up, he would run up and smash it back down again.''

She said the second hijacker had a ''softer, calmer voice. I thought he might show some mercy.''

Those hopes were dashed when the second man held up a satchel filled with explosives to one of the stewardesses and warned her ''quietly but firmly'' that he would not hesitate to detonate the charge if his orders were not followed.

For the next three hours it was terror without letup. Sullivan recalled the ache in her muscles as she was forced to remain bent forward with her hands on her head. ''They were always shouting, 'No speak! No speak! We kill you!' It was maniacal. And all the time, they were waving those grenades around.''

The hostages' fears were compounded by the fact that the pilot was silent throughout the entire flight, apparently forbidden by the air pirates to speak to the passengers.

Nevertheless, Sullivan said, she heard sounds that made her sick with fear. ''I clearly heard men being beaten. Then I heard a gurgling sound, as if someone was being strangled.''

After the plane landed in Beirut the hijackers began ordering some people to the front.

''Then a stewardess tapped me on the head and said, 'They want you up front.' I thought it was the end,'' Sullivan said.

She walked forward to find that the hijackers had inflated the emergency escape chute and were ordering a group of passengers to slide down to the tarmac.

They shouted, 'Jump! Jump!' I was sorry to leave the others behind, but I thought you must do what they said. I thought that maybe I'm one of the lucky ones.''